1. Field
The following description relates to a fuel cell module, in particular to a fuel cell module having a structure capable of increasing its current collecting efficiency.
2. Description of Related Art
Since fuel cells have various output ranges and uses, it is possible to select the fuel cells suitable for particular purposes. Among the fuel cells, a lot of attention has been directed to solid oxide fuel cells for distribution power generation, commerce, and home, because these fuel cells have advantages in that position control of an electrolyte is relatively easy, the electrolyte is hardly exhausted due to the fixed position of the electrolyte, and the life of the material is long due to high corrosion resistance. Further, solid oxide fuel cells are cells that operate at relatively high temperature of about 600˜1000° C., and have several advantages in that they have the highest efficiency and cause little air pollution compared to a variety of fuel cells in the related art, do not need a fuel reformer, and allow for composite power generation.
However, such solid oxide fuel cells may not achieve sufficient voltage with only an individual fuel cell unit, such that, if necessary, the fuel cell units are stacked to be connected with each other, and these fuel cell units can be largely categorized as either a tube type or a flat plate type. It is envisioned that although the tube type has a decreased power density in the stack itself as compared with the flat plate type, the power density of the entire system is about the same. Further, the tube type makes it possible to easily seal the fuel cell units of the stack, has high resistance against thermal stress, and also has high mechanical strength of the stack, such that research about the tube type has been actively conducted as an advanced technology for manufacturing products having a large area.
Further, the tube type solid oxide fuel cell can be classified as either a cathode-supported fuel cell using the cathode as a support or an anode-supported fuel cell using the anodes as a support. The anode-supported fuel cell is an advanced type, such that the solid oxide fuel cells are now being developed for the anode-supported type.
A method of winding a wire made of silver (Ag) around a cathode to collect current has been used for current collectors in the related art